Three Advent and Christmas haiku

outside

the trees dressed in hard

galactic light

Haiku by David Loffman

Photo milky way silhouette by Indigo Skies Photography reprinted under flickr's creative commons licence 

we fend off

the vast darkness with

candle light

Haiku by David Loffman

Untitled photograph by Ryan Martinl reprinted under flickr's creative commons licence 

the stable boy

stirs in straw and rags through his

first long night


Haiku by David Loffman
Untitled photograph by orientallizing reprinted under flickr's creative commons licence 

The Wexford Carol

Click here for a beautiful Christmas carol.

November Haiku and Photograph

suddenly 
the cold - dry and clean, sharp
like a blade

Haiku by David Loffman
Photograph The Frost is all Over by London Looks
published under flickr's Creative Commons licence

November lines from Richmond Park

ghosts appear sculptured out of dense grey fog

   
   
Iambic pentameter by David Loffman
Photograph Through the Mist by antgirl 
published under flickr's Creative Commons licence



great stag stands antlers rooted to the sky
   
   

   
   
Iambic pentameter by David Loffman
Photograph IMGP3935 by Laurence Arnold
published under flickr's Creative Commons licence

Two autumn lines and photographs

sunlight shattered into pieces of gold

Iambic pentameter by David Loffman 

Photograph Autumn colors by peaceful-jp-scenery
Published here under flickr's creative commons copyright

behind

quivering leaves, shafts of sunlight

find me

Haiku by David Loffman
Photograph Autumn by Harry Lipson
Published here under flickr's creative commons copyright

Joni Mitchell In Concert BBC 1970 - DVD quality plus

I came across this BBC Joni Mitchell concert from 1970. Just stunning!

File on 4 Colleges in Crisis

Here is a link to File on 4 broadcast on Tuesday night. It presents a rather disturbing portrait of the Further Education sector in which I have worked for almost 30 years.

Click here for the link

Ted Hughes - Stronger Than Death

We've just watched an outstanding documentary about the life of the poet Ted Hughes. We were completely spellbound by it.

Click here for a link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06j7pkl/ted-hughes-stronger-than-death

A concert at the BBC PROM

On Friday evening I watched this fantastic concert at the BBC Prom. The Beethoven triple concerto just blew me away. Daniel Barenboim is incredible. Click here for a link to it.

Being Dead by Jim Crace

My ambition has been to read every Jim Crace book he has ever written. But I've been quite slow. Here are a few observations about the second one I've read. 

Being Dead by Jim Crace.

Two middle aged doctors return to the sand dunes at Baritone Bay after 30 years where they first met and made love. It marks the start of their 30 year marriage. But this second visit is different. They are naked and dead. They have been murdered.

The novel weaves different narrative strands. Firstly the novel details  the slow decomposition and decay of the bodies until the corpses are discovered six days later. We read about the changing weather, the different creatures, the chemical reactions, the body fluids. Crace writes with a detached detailed and sensitive prose that becomes poetic at times. We are confronted by the physicality of death. Its materialness. There's nothing spiritual or emotional about it. It just is.

A second narrative thread describes the first meeting 30 years ago as post graduate students staying at a cabin near the bay along with four other students. Crace describes attitudes, attractions and ambitions of the six students - with special focus on Joseph and Celice's meeting and relationship. The prose here is delicate, sensitive, observant. He picks up details of character that draws us in. A third narrative is that of the couples final day. Crace takes us on a journey from the moment they were bludgeoned to death by a random stranger to the start of their day. I found this thread the least interesting with lots of domestic details and descriptions of the relationship established over a long period of time. The final narrative thread - the most novelistic - follows Syl's discovery of her parent's  murder. Although not a close family - she seems quite antagonistic to start with - soon becomes love, hard won, battered out through the years. It is touching, beautiful at times.

I enjoyed the novel. Read it in three readings. I liked the individual, unattractive couple and their daughter. I liked the random act of murder that is left completely unexplored except for the inevitable mopping up by the police. I loved the forensic descriptions of purification and decomposition of the two bodies. I thought the Syl narrative - introduced about half way through the novel - helped keep the text engaging. Crace is a craftsman. He's completely in control of his material. And brings it all gently and pleasingly to it's end.

FE and Sixth Form Colleges funding - The Today programme

Click here for a link to an article on the Today program about Further Education and Sixth Form college funding. I'm sure I've become a victim of the funding cuts that have taken place from 2011. And still set to continue.

You'll find the article 2 hours and 41 minutes into the program. The article lasts just about 5 minute. It ends at 2 hours 46 minutes and 14 seconds.

Little Gidding

I first found out about Little Gidding in 1980 /81, 34 years ago. It was the title of one of the poems I studied for my English A level. One of the sections of the poem really stood out for me because it tells the story of a journey to a little chapel or church in Cambridgeshire where the narrator - the poet T. S. Eliot - came to pray and describes a mystical encounter with God. As I came to know the poem over a period of months I realised that the poem was telling my own story of a discovery of a church close to where I lived in Harrow, where I felt that I had had a mystical encounter with God.

I've read that poem again and again over the years. I've performed it in public and I've preached about it twice in my own church in New Malden. But it never really occurred to me that I could actually visit the little church at Little Gidding.

But this weekend we did visit the church and stayed the night in Ferrar House - named after Nicholas Ferrar the 17th century son of a merchant, who restored the church and built several houses close by to create a Christian community. The church of St John the Evangelist is situated in the grounds - or garden of Ferrar House. The house is a Christian retreat centre and is open to individuals and small groups to stay.

It was an incredible visit. Both my wife and me can barely believe that we actually spent a couple of hours in the church on Friday and then spent the night next door in Ferrar House where we were looked after very well. And then the following day we spent a few hours in the library of the house and then a final visit to the church before heading off.

Click here for a link to an article about Little Gidding.

Click here for a link to the Ferrar House website

Click here for a link to a printed extract of the poem

Here is Eliot reading the whole of Little Gidding. He first visited it in 1936. The poem was published in 1942

And here is my reading of the first section of Little Gidding

Beyond the Border 2016

The dates for Beyond the Border 2016- The Wales International Storytelling festival have been announced. The festival dates are Friday 1 - to Saturday 3 July 2016.

Click here for a link to the BtB website.

I expect we'll be going and it would be great to see you there as well.

At the Summer Exhibition 2015 Royal Academy

Here are a few highlights and impressions of the Summer Exhibition this summer. I've reproduced the work here out of sheer awe and wonder at the work of these artists in the hope that others will appreciate and support them. 

flat platted river

slowly flows

into vast Atlantic blue

(c) David Loffman

This is Mississippi River Blues by Richard Long RA. It's in the Summer Exhibition.

Click here for a link to Richard Long's Official Website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition 2015

Through woven sunlight and rainfall

I'm looking down at butterflies

(c) David Loffman

This is Rainfall by Ermioni Avramidou. It's in the Summer Exhibition.

Click here for Ermioni's facebook page and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition where you can see the real work

A smudged line

between sea and sky.

Earth dissolving.

(c) David Loffman

This is Uist by Jock McFadyen. It's in the Summer Exhibition.

Click here for a link to Jock McFadyen's website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition where you can see the real work

We move among the metal forest
where the nymphs are departed
and only our fractured shadows remain.

(c) David Loffman


This is The Dappled Light of the Sun by Conrad Shawcross. It's in the courtyard at the Royal Academy as part of the Summer Exhibition. The photograph also contains an image of the artist.

Click here for a link to Conrad Shawcross's website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition.

Gannets and vast jigsaw pieces of rock

(c) David Loffman

This is Gannets on Flannon by Norman Ackroyd RA. You can see this at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Click here for a link to Norman Ackroyd's website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition

And finally click here for a review of the exhibition from the Telegraph. It's the closest review to my own thoughts about the SE. And besides it gives Norman Ackroyd's work a positive mention.

* Text in italics is my responses to the work. The copyright is mine.

The Clangers

They have remade The Clangers. Series 3 is now available on the BBC iplayer. It's interesting to compare the differences between the original 1970's episodes with the most recent ones. Here are examples of the opening episodes from the first and most recent series.

What do you think?

Click here for a link to the opening episode from the 1970's

and click here for the most recent episode. Only available for the next month.

Notice how linguistically sophisticated and varied the original introduction is in comparison to the simple lexical choices and visually more dynamic the recent introduction is. Notice also the long, slow sweep of the camera from Earth to the 'star' where the Clangers live, compared to the fast forward focus in the recent series. There is also something terrifying and alienating about the black expanse of the cosmos in the original compared to the sub-urban blue sky of the the recent one.

It's interesting to consider what these differences tell us about childhood, the expectations and assumptions we have of childhood experience.

Click here for a recent interview with Peter Fermin on Radio 4's Front Row about his work on The Clangers.

What every interested citizen should know about science

So according to Brian Cox on the Today programme on radio 4 this morning, there are three scientific facts any interested citizen should know - however I think he identifies four in all.

1 Atoms are the buidling blocks of the material universe

2 The universe came into being 13.82 billion years ago

3 and all life on earth shares a common ancestor and is involved in a process of natural selection

4 There are four fundemental forces of nature. The most important of these is gravity - despite the fact that it is the weakest. Given that, I can barely make any sense of the other three fundemental forces.

There were some other interesting facts along the way in this rather confusing interview, including the facts  that:

• The earth is five billion years old
• Life on earth began four billion years ago

Anyway try and make sense of it yourself by clicking here.

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy 2015

I can't believe the Summer Exhibition has already opened. I've only quite recently finished the two poems inspired by exhibits from last year. It's come round so quickly. It's been a source of inspiration for me for a few years now. I'm really looking forward to visiting in early July.

Click here for a link to details about this year's show.

Pete Seeger - Little Boxes

It's Friday afternoon and I'm feeling a little uneasy about the working week that has just gone and the working week to come.

This song by Malvina Reynolds performed here by Pete Seeger has something to do with it I think.

T. S. Eliot: The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

Click here for a link to Jeremy Irons reading of Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. It's one of my favourite poems. Radio 4 broadcast it on Tuesday 2 June. Perhaps as a belated birthday treat. It's a very different reading from the one I would give.

Timbuktu: a film by Abderrahmane Sissako

We've just come back from the first screening of Timbuktu in the UK. It is a visually stunning film. A soft desert landscape often filmed at sunset. It gives everything the sunlight touches a radiant glow. It's a way i think for the director to disguise the awful brutality of the jihadist regime that has occupied and now controls the lives of those who live there in Timbuktu.

The brutality is presented at first with a comic banality as a jihadist proclaims from a megaphone as he rides a moped through the sand filled streets, that smoking is prohibited, that women must wear gloves at all times, that there will be no music or football.

But these comic, almost laughable laws give way to moments of terrifying yet mundane violence. A woman is sentenced to 80 lashes of a whip for singing, we see a couple buried up to their necks and then stoned until they are dead. And then there is the awful sentence of the man who shot his neighbour unintentionally in a dispute about the killing of a a cow. It is his fate along with his wife and daughter that dominate the film.

The film weaves around the lives of both inhabitants and jihadists with an understated human sensitivity extended to both groups. Characters are not simplistic templates of good or evil, jihadist and citizen. The jihadis doubt and question their actions. For example one guard questions whether a group of women should be arrested for singing holy songs to God. The village women are strong, aggressive and challenging but ultimately submit to the physical presence and threats of  these driven men with automatic rifles, Toyota jeeps and mobile phones. Gadgets they seem to take an uncomfortable pleasure in using.

It's a visually beautiful film to watch. The intimate family relationship between husband, wife and daughter forms an emotional centre of the film. The light touches of humour are a simple delight. For example the donkey that walks across a football pitch during a game played with an imaginary ball. The men are presented with beauty, authority and dignity by their flowing robes. However women dressed in black robes and veils look imprisoned and uniformed. They express themselves despite their  clothes, whereas men are affirmed by their clothes. The jihadists hypocrisy is presented with one brief moment where one of the high ranking guards is smoking a cigarette privately and is discovered by a subordinate.

Click here for a Guardian review of Timbuktu a film by the African director Abderrahmane Sissako.

Drawing and Painting Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists by Kate Wilson

My friend Kate Wilson has recently had her book published by Thames and Hudson. Click here for  a link to the book at the publisher. And click here for a link to Amazon to buy a copy

I had a good chance to look at the book a couple of months ago. I thought it was really wide ranging in its scope and engagement with contemporary art. I was surprised by the huge variety and inventiveness of current artistic practice.

I thought the book informed, accessible full of thoughtful and carefully selected illustrations. I particularly enjoyed reading the short and detailed biographies of many contemporary artists.

Don McCullin

I've just watched an extraordinary documentary about the photographer Don McCullin on Netflix. A film in which McCullin talks openly about his career that spans over 50 years of war photography. He speaks with a detached sensitivity and a moral responsibility about his work with The Sunday Times and beyond. He is an important chronicler of our times. I was greatly impressed and moved by the film.

Book Launch House of Small Absences by Anne-Marie Fyfe

I'm enjoying reading House of Small Absences by Anne-Marie Fyfe. We were at the book launch in Turnham Green on Friday evening. Met some old friends, drank a little wine and relaxed into a long bank holiday weekend.

Click here for a link to House of Small Absences by Anne-Marie Fyfe

Boubacar Traore playing in London

Boubacar Traore is playing in London this week. But I've got a meeting and canoeing on the nights he's playing. Shall I go?

While I'm making my mind up have a listen to this amazing musician.

T S Eliot prize 2014 - a brief note -

Congratulations to David Harsent for winning the T S Eliot prize 2014 with his collection Fire Songs. It was an incredible evening at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 11 January hearing poems from the entire short list.

I thought the poetry collections were so strong. The judges must have had quite a tough job.




Click here for a brief article about the winner.